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The issue of gay marriage is being debated yet again in the Supreme Court, and were a verdict to come out in favor of the institution, society would take another step forward towards acceptance. New polls show that a majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage, but even as the concept of gay marriage gains momentum in society, the sporting world has fallen behind.

San Francisco 49ers safety Chris Culliver infamously tweeted his disgust towards the prospect of having a gay teammate during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. While he later apologized for his statement, that it was a player from a city as liberal as San Francisco shows the disconnect between sports teams and the players who play for those teams. While the 49ers made an “It Gets Better” video last year, half of the players did not know that the anti-bullying message was targeted at LGBTQs and two of the four athletes who participated deny involvement. The ad has since been pulled.

While many athletes will not say it, Culliver is not alone in his feelings of discomfort towards the prospect of playing with a gay teammate. Even so, the NFL gets some credit as an alliance of athletes including NFL players Chris Kluwe, Scott Fujita, and Brendon Ayanbadejo filed a brief to the Supreme Court challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage. On that brief were the names of 10 current NFL players as well as representatives from all other major sporting leagues in America, except one: Major League Baseball.

With the success of “42,” a biopic of the story of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the MLB, the spotlight is on baseball to again be the catalyst for change in society. Robinson was a hero, and as the movie shows, nothing he did came easy. He was greeted in the big leagues with pitches thrown at his head, racism from opposing players as well as his own teammates, and fans that hurled all kinds of insults at him from the stands. But because of his struggle, Major League Baseball was able to integrate and society soon followed.

Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball. Who will be the first openly gay player?

Fast forward over sixty years, and baseball has fallen behind. Number one WNBA draft pick Brittany Griner recently came out and went on to sign an endorsement deal with Nike, mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox recently came out as transgender, and former Celtics center Jason Collins revealed he was gay in a soon-to-be-released Sports Illustrated article. But while a few baseball players have come out after the fact, there has never been an openly gay player on a major league roster.

This isn’t to say there haven’t been developments in the baseball world. The MLB recently added a line on sexual orientation to the players’ anti-discrimination clauses. This clause may be necessary, as last year, former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar was fined and suspended for three games when he played with a homophobic slur written in Spanish on his eye black. Many high profile players, including Tigers ace pitcher Justin Verlander have made comments saying they would welcome a gay teammate. However, these comments might have been prompted, since Verlander’s teammate Torii Hunter has said last year that playing with a gay teammate would make him “uncomfortable. The “uncomfortable” idea is thrown around a lot by players as an argument against their peers coming out, but not all players feel that way. Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy responded to the idea of discomfort from a gay teammate saying “If you’ve played this game for a number of years, you’ve probably had a few gay teammates, and have you been accosted in the shower yet? It’s probably not going to happen if someone comes out.”

The baseball world would appear to be split on the issue, echoing the societal feeling as well. What baseball needs is a gay Jackie Robinson. A player who is so good that he cannot be ignored, but so dynamic that no one would want to ignore him. The potential for revenue is huge, and any owner should jump at the opportunity and media buzz it would bring. Just as Jackie Robinson changed the way that society thought about race, so too can a gay player change the way that we think about sexual orientation. Baseball is the national pastime, and sports are great when they can bring people together. The question now is, who will step up to the plate?

In light of the recent Dodger/Padre brawl that left one player with a broken collarbone and one suspended for eight games, I felt it necessary to look at the ramifications of other brawls to determine the fairness of the most recent confrontation.

Surprisingly, there is little information on the history of bench clearing brawls in baseball. There isn’t a list of players who have charged the mound. There isn’t a ranking of the batters that have been suspended for fighting with pitchers. Instead, the focus is on ranking the best bench clearing brawls and the only suspensions people remain interested in are for performance enhancing drugs.

Duck. Dodge. Dip. Dive. and Dodge.

A cursory glace at recent mound fights show that Quentin has received the harshest punishment for charging the mound; 8 games. Before that, Nyjer Morgan and Coco Crisp held the record at seven games, which occurred in 2010 and 2008, respectively. It must also be noted, that this most recent brawl looked comparatively calm compared to those two, and had it not been for the broken collar bone, it would have been remembered that way. But while the Crisp/Morgan charges flirt with injury opportunities, the Greinke/Quentin fight finally revealed the damage that can result from a meaningless confrontation.

When comparing Quentin’s trip to the mound to both the Morgan and Crisp fights, the suspension seems fair; its right in line with the other two, yet slightly higher due to the unfortunate broken bone. However, this has not satisfied Dodger loyalty, and Mattingly even demanded that Quentin be suspended until at least Greinke gets back.

Currently, Greinke is in line to miss roughly ten starts, or a third of the season, as a result of the incident. This can prove to be disastrous for a team that some project to win the division by fewer than five games. Quality starting pitching is hard to come by, and $147 million arms are even harder to come by, making it difficult for the Dodgers to easily find replacements and putting their entire season into limbo. Should the Dodgers fail to make it to the playoffs and the gap be within a couple of games, fans will no doubt blame the season on Quentin.

As a Dodger fan, it’s hard to disagree with Mattingly. But I would find it wildly random if players were to be suspended for seven games for charging the mound, and 60 if the pitcher is injured. Granted its easy to blame the batter for causing the fight, but it becomes harder to locate when, if and who causes the injuries occurred. Not all of these questions are easily answered and could make it hard to point the blame at one person. And the degree of injury is easily quantifiable in time missed, but these two shouldn’t always be correlated.

As a result, this type of suspension opens itself up to debate. Not only to the amount of time a player should miss, but also because of the discrepancies that can present themselves in terms of skill level. In the Dodger’s case, it’s clear that the two players are of roughly the same skill level and importance to their team. But what happens when Nolan Ryan is charged by a young Robin Ventura, who hypothetically gets hurt? It wouldn’t be fair, and it would actually incentivize teams to send their rookies out to the mound to throw up some fisticuffs against an ace.

Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura.

Instead, MLB should just seek to drastically punish batters who charge the mound to the point that it becomes nonexistent.

But MLB done little to discourage players from charging the mound. Since 2006, MLB has added four games to the suspensions issued to mound chargers, and nobody really knows how much the undisclosed fine has increased. Although ESPN published Quentin’s amounted at $3,000. Oh and did I mention that Brian Wilson was fined $1,000 in 2010 for wearing bright orange shoes in the World Series.

It must also be noted that there is little to gain out of allowing players to charge the mound. Sure, fans love watching the benches and bullpens clear, but there are far easier ways for MLB to sell tickets and gain youtube views. Fans get just as excited over managers getting tossed, and thats not even saying they are expecting that anyways. Most fans do not arrive at a baseball game expecting heavy hitting physical contact. This is especially true for contact that has no impact, other than a negative one, on the outcome of the game.

Baseball is not a contact sport, which is what makes it such a mental challenge. While it’s easily mocked because of this (famously done by George Carlin), MLB should stop pretending that the game is something it isn’t.

Now that we are a few weeks into the season, let’s take stock. The Rockies and Braves play each other with the best records in baseball on the line. Former aces look mortal and sluggers are slumping. Everyone is overreacting, but it is important to remember: we are only a few weeks into the season! It’s a small sample size. Still, it doesn’t take long until a sample becomes a trend. With that in mind, here are the hot and cold starts and what to actually believe.

Hot Teams

Boston Red Sox 12-6 (.667) 1st Place AL East as of 3/23

Last year, the Red Sox finished in last place and were part of the salary dump trade to the Dodgers that people saw as a team giving up. And yet, here they are a year later sitting at first place in the AL East with a team and city that is playing for something beyond the standings.

The Boston offense is producing well, and Mike Napoli looks like he is happy to be out of Texas. Big Papi is back from the DL and the top of the order is healthy (Ellsbury) and getting on base (Pedroia). The offense is doing well, but the success of the Red Sox so far comes down to one thing: pitching.

Last year, the Red Sox starting pitching was among the worst in the league. This year, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester are leading the way. Neither has lost a game yet on the season, and they look like the pitchers everyone expected them to be. So, do you believe it? Well, kind of. The fried chicken fiasco and the attitude of Josh Beckett are long gone. With that departure, the young Boston pitchers lost a bad influence and look like they are taking to new manager John Farrell well. Also important is the arrival of Allen Webster with the big league club. Webster was part of the trade with the Dodgers, and despite all the big names involved, is looking like he might be the diamond in the rough.

The Red Sox picked a great time to get hot. The city of Boston needs something to root for right now, and I think everyone in America is happy that they are succeeding. For now. The Red Sox aren’t going to keep up their current pace, but I am a believer in the younger, healthy rotation. If they can stay healthy, and the offense can continue to put runs on the board, there is no reason that Boston shouldn’t keep winning baseball games. Sports are always important when they come to signify something other than just the standings, and that is happening in the city of Boston right now. In the words of Big Papi:

Colorado Rockies 13-5 (.722) 1st place in NL West as of 3/23

The Rockies have surged out of the gates this year, surprising, given their last place finish in 2012. A healthy Tulowitzki, CarGo and Wilin Rosario lead the offense, while Jorge de la Rosa (2-1, 2.82 ERA) and Jhoulys Chacin (3-0, 1.46 ERA) anchor the staff.

The Rockies are doing well despite almost no roster turnover from last year, with 21 of the 25 roster spots returning from 2012, and no major free agent signings in the offseason. The main thing to focus on with the Rockies, as with any team, is health. Tulo is an all-star caliber shortstop who’s worst enemy is health. If he is healthy, he transforms any lineup. The Rockies offense is legit. Dexter Fowler is having a coming-out party and Rosario is showing that his offensive prowess last year was no fluke.

The Tulo Mullet – Never forget.

However, the pitching will not hold up. Chacin just went on the DL and won’t be back any time soon. De La Rosa has shown potential throughout his career, and could be legit, but the rest of the staff is a shambles. Garland is coming off shoulder surgery, and can’t be trusted to hold up for an entire season. The bullpen is a strong point, but whether they can continue their success all season will come down to the managing of rookie manager Walt Wiess.

The Rockies are currently scoring 4.22 runs per game, and the offense is capable of continuing at this pace. They may just surprise everyone and be a .500 team, but the starting pitching will not hold up. Expect a come back to earth, as early as tonight against the Braves.

Honorable Mentions:

Atlanta Braves 13-5 (.722) 1st place, NL East – legit. The offense with the additions of Justin Upton and Evan Gattis will have pop all year provided they can keep the strikeouts down. The pitching, including Paul Maholm should continue to keep runs off the board. The team is currently best in the majors with a ridiculous 2.36 ERA, and while this may come up a bit, the Braves are still the team to beat in the NL.

Oakland A’s 12-8 (.600) 2nd Place, AL West – legit (kind of). The A’s have succeeded so far thanks to an incredible 5.26 runs per game so far. There is no way they will keep this up. Coco Crisp is about to hit his season high in homers in the first few weeks. Jed Lowrie is hitting well, but has never been able to stay on the field for a full season. The A’s are a legitimate contender this year, but they will do it with their pitching, not their hitting. The hitters are on a hot streak right now, but the runs per game will come down, and it will be on the pitching staff to pick up the slack for the A’s to make it to the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Cold Teams

The two teams I will be talking about here are actually not doing terribly. They are only a few games below .500 and will both likely climb in the standings soon. However, they are included here because the expectations for success were so high. The Dodgers and Jays will both be fine and both be contenders by the end of the year, but they are both off to cold starts, and here is why:

LA Dodgers 8-10 (.444) 4th place, NL West

The Dodgers have run cold so far this year. Everything starts and ends with pitching, and even Clayton Kershaw has looked mortal (not counting opening day when he crushed my Giants). Zach Greinke landed on the DL after a brawl with Carlos Quentin. The rest of the staff has looked average, but none have stood out. Meanwhile, the offense is bipolar. Big name acquisitions such as Adrian Gonzalez (.385 avg) and Carl Crawford (.338 avg) are hitting great, while local stars Matt Kemp (.235 avg) Andre Ethier (.230 avg) are slumping badly. The hot and cold starts should even out, as good hitters don’t stay cold for long. That being said, there are some real problems with this team.

Not a good way to start a season.

The left side of the infield is weak. Shortstop and third base is currently a merry-go-round of average to bad players, and even when Hanley Ramirez comes back from the DL, the Dodgers will have below average defense and average offense at third or short depending on how they structure their lineup card. Kershaw is fine, but the rest of the staff could have troubles. Ryu is still adjusting to American baseball, Greinke is out indefinitely, Billingsley is having Tommy John and done for the year, Lilly is coming off another surgery, and Josh Beckett’s best years are far behind him. The bullpen is not yet reliable, and manager Don Mattingly has not yet figured out the intricacies of managing a bullpen over the course of the season.

There is a lot to worry about with the Dodgers, maybe buying a championship isn’t as easy as we thought.

Toronto Blue Jays 8-12 (.400) 5th place, AL East

Speaking of buying a championship: the Toronto Blue Jays are also having some troubles with their new roster. Fresh off relieving the city of Miami of their baseball team, the Jays are struggling to put it all together. Jose Reyes was lost to injury on a bad slide during an attempted steal of second base. Jose Bautista is still dealing with some nagging back issues, and the Jays are 2-4 without him in the lineup. Meanwhile, starters Josh Johnson and Mark Buerhle have yet to contribute much in a Jays uniform.

Reyes may only be able to watch the Jays for most of this season

The Jays are batting .227 as a whole, good for 3rd worst in baseball behind the Mariners and Marlins. Meanwhile, the pitching staff has given up the second most runs in baseball behind only the Astros. If we go based on the numbers alone, the Jays should actually have a worse record than 8-12 at this point. They have been bailed out a bit by the long ball (21 on the year) and the arrival of J.P. Arencibia as a power threat, but the Jays seem to be trending in the wrong direction. A healthy Bautista will do a lot to curb some losses, but the Jays do not seem to be doing any better with the 2012 Miami Marlins roster than the 2012 Miami Marlins did.

With everything from standings to fantasy closers receiving its own rankings before the preseason, we here at fb/cu couldn’t let the season get too far underway without creating a ranking that combines our two favorite pastimes; baseball and politics.

Tom, George, Teddy, and Abe

Every season, I eagerly await the time when baseball decides to incorporate politicians. Whether it be a first pitch or the Congressional Baseball Game, nothing is as comfortable as the edge of my seat. At some point during the summer, the President will stroll from the dugout to the mound to make the first pitch. While the President is probably just doing it for PR, I can’t help rooting for the man leading the country to demonstrate his power on the mound. Regardless of party, I want the President to succeed. For America.

Politicians Can Play Baseball Too!

That happens to varying success. And as a result, I ranked the five best first-pitch Presidents.

Disclaimer: Clinton was the first president to throw out the first pitch from the mound. Before this, most presidents threw from the stands or the base of the pitchers mound. I only included President’s that made throws from the field.

5. Barack Obama (L) – The President is known for his basketball skills, but his baseball skills remain little league at best. When your watching the video, you know its going to be bad when he struggles with his glove. And his form looks fresh out of the early 1900’s, slight pre-windup windmill arms and tons of body movement. Then he makes the pitch, missing the batters box by feet. It’s hard to justify him even making this list, but he squeaks in because, well, he’s the President.

4. Ronald Reagan (R) – Ronald Reagan was from Illinois and a self-professed lifelong Cubs fan. What remains little known is that he worked for WHO radio as a play by play announcer for the Cubs. His knowledge of baseball translated somewhat to his baseball abilities. But his form remains suspect from time to time. Ultimately, it seems that Reagan would be a better Harry Carey than a Greg Maddux.

Reagan with Harry Carey in the Broadcasting Booth

Watch that Leg Mr. President

3.Bill Clinton (L) – Clinton took the mound in Baltimore in 1996. After tons of practice both before the game and during warm-ups in the bullpen, Clinton stepped to the rubber. Although he would later admit his nerves, it doesn’t seem to come out in his pitch. The practice (or something else) worked as Clinton makes the first pitch look relaxed and easy. While he is no power pitcher, he accuracy is on point as he delivers a strike.

2. George H.W. Bush (L) – Even though there is little video of Bush Sr. thawing out the first pitch, the scouting on him alone warrants a number two ranking. Bush Sr. was captain of his high school baseball team, where he played first base. He later attended Yale, where he was also appointed captain and played in the first two College World Series. Although he decided to hang up his jersey after his schooling, he didn’t do so before meeting Babe Ruth. No other President experienced this amount of baseball conditioning, and when combined with his left-handed abilities, we easily give Bush Sr. the #2 position on our countdown.

The Babe with the Future President

1. George W. Bush (R)– If there was a Cy Young award to be given out to Commander’s in Chief, it would go to Bush Jr. He earned that award with one pitch on October 30, 2001. A little over a month after 9/11, Bush Jr. decided to head to Yankee Stadium to make the first pitch. In a city rich with history still looking for comfort, the President takes the field to a standing ovation in an FDNY jacket, camera crews lining up down the base paths. Reaching the mound, he turns to give a couple Presidential waves to the thousands of fans in attendance, giving little notice to the pinstripes stationed behind the plate. His face is stoic, no pre-celebratory smiles, and before you know it, he’s in the stretch. His form is tight, and he releases a perfect strike. The decibels spike because the President just put the nation on his back! No other first pitch has meant as much to the country as this first pitch, and George W. Bush pitched a perfect strike.

And that concludes our Presidential rankings. We’ll see you again in 2016!

The Fastball

By: Matt

Spring Training stats don’t matter. You hear the phrase uttered by broadcaster and bleacher bum alike. For rookies and grizzled veterans trying to make a big league roster for the first (or last) time, having a “good” spring is very important. Putting up good numbers during spring training is an important part of winning a job, but hitting .400 is just as meaningless as hitting .125 once April 1st comes around. Major Leaguers who aren’t trying to win a job use the spring as a “tune-up.” Starters will work on a specific pitch, relievers will try and get better at pitching in certain situations, and hitters will tinker with their swings. If these tinkerings work and a player puts up good numbers then great, but for the players themselves, they could care less about their final spring numbers, because everyone goes back to 0 once the season starts.

Let’s take a couple case studies. Brandon Belt has been having an awesome spring for the Giants and he looks primed for a breakout. He is currently raking with a .410 batting average and 8 homers. So, he must be about to have a breakout season right? Well it turns out the Baby Giraffe has done this every spring. In 2012 he hit .378 and in 2011 he hit well enough to win the job, as shown in the Showtime series The Franchise. Maybe Belt will have a breakout year, but it’s more likely to come from not having to challenge Aubrey Huff for playing time and less because of confidence heading into the season.

How about we look at 2012’s Spring Training batting title champion? No, it’s not Albert Pujols or Joey Votto, no Mike Trout or Ryan Braun. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you…drum roll please: Munenori Kawasaki. The shortstop made the jump from the Japanese Nippon league to the MLB easily in Spring Training and put up a .455 batting average. However, once the season rolled around Kawasaki batted under the Mendoza line at .192 and only appeared in 61 games for the Mariners. A great spring training did not translate into good season numbers for Mune, likely because while it was easy enough to wrap singles against inferior competition, the regular season brought on the best pitching in the world. Major league pitching is a tough adjustment for any player, especially one coming from a different country. Though he never quite figured it out with the bat during the regular season, Kawsaki remains the single most gifable player in the bigs and the best bench warmer any team could ask for.

This is how everybody celebrates a walkoff, right?

Chris Sale and Stephen Strasburg both posted ERAs over 4 in Spring Training last year and went on to Cy Young-caliber seasons (or ¾ seasons). Pitchers often will work on a specific pitch or the timing of their delivery during spring training games, since bloated ERAs and losses don’t matter. Pitchers can also suffer from bad numbers thanks to the strict innings limit placed upon them. A starter may only pitch through a few innings for most of Spring Training so as to protect their arm and ward off injury.

In professional sports it is never a good thing to lose. A culture of winning is something to be fostered, and for baseball players, that culture starts in the spring. Winning Spring Training games can help a team to find their identity and some teams can carry that culture into the season, but this matters more towards the last few weeks of ST. For the first few weeks, players are getting back in the groove, meeting new teammates for the first time, and trying to work on certain things. A player can go 0 for 4 and still have a great day because they learned not to swing at a curveball on a certain count. Spring Training is just that, training. It’s a necessary part of the business, but has no real effect on the real thing. I, for one, am glad baseball is back for real. Happy Opening Day everybody!

Happy Baseball Season!

The Changeup

By: Ryan

It’s easy to say that spring training stats don’t matter. Players are returning to the game in various mental and physical states, and coaches are shifting lineups and splitting squads. With all this variance, it becomes hard to interpret stats and easy to disregard all spring training numbers. But there are certain “player-centric” stats that can be reliably used to highlight strong/troubled players, a fact that is especially valid at the beginning and end of a player’s career.

I use the term “player-centric” to describe stats that are influenced by the least number of players in the game. The fewer number of people that can influence that particular stat, the greater the individual player’s control is over that number. The difference between wins and quality starts displays the discrepancy between these two types of stats. Wins depend on the pitcher’s performance, the team offense, and the team defense. With more people involved, a pitcher can be robbed of a win with a poor team performance, ultimately masking a pitcher’s abilities. In comparison, quality starts rely solely on the pitcher’s ability to dominate hitters, and becomes a more accurate way to judge a season.

Some of the more reliable “player-centric” stats to quantify spring performances are K and BB percentages. Mike Podhorzer at Fangrpah.com did some regression analysis on these stats for pitchers and found that they are both correlated to regular season performance. This gives fans and scouts the ability to use these numbers to evaluate pitchers and pick better fantasy teams.

He goes even further to speculate that really strong performances should be valued higher than poor performances. His explanation being, “You cannot fluke your way into striking out a high percentage of hitters, but pitchers work on new pitches or their mechanics in the spring all the time and can easily explain a weak performance.”

While his regression model didn’t confirm this notion, another blogger found this speculation to be true. William Juliano at The Captain’s Blog looked at K/IP and K/BB ratios from the 2011 preseason and identified players with stats above a certain threshold as “potential breakout candidates.” A similar list was compiled of players that had spring stats below a threshold. They were labeled “potential breakdown candidates.”

Juliano found that the “breakout candidates'” stats translated better to the regular season. Based on the stats alone, his model correctly identified the breakout seasons of Craig Kimbrel, Ian Kennedy, and Justin Masterson.

BB and K ratios are also useful stats when it comes to hitting. The prime example being the Cuban minor leaguer, Yasiel Puig. The Dodger’s outfielder was relatively unknown prior to this year, since he missed most of 2012 with a staph infection. However, he recently left Glendale, Arizona with a .527 batting average in 55 at bats. With that number, he easily becomes one of the best outfielders in the game, but he lacks plate discipline. Puig struck out 15 times (27% of the time) and only walked four times, yet the Dodgers cited these numbers as a reason for sending him down at the end of March.

Please come back Yasiel.

Still, in his 25 games, Puig made a name for himself and developed a reputation, indicating a greater importance on stats for the rookies. For rookies, these stats appear more significant. This is the first time that these players are able to face major league talent, and the baseball community winds up giving more weight to their numbers. This was the case with Julio Teheran, SP, Atlanta Braves, who in 6 games, posted a 1.04 ERA 3.89 K/BB ratio. At the beginning of spring, talk was he would wind up back in AAA, but a strong month proved to be enough, earning him the 5th starter role.

Players who are exiting their prime also see their stats heavily scrutinized. Roy Halladay is one player whose stats indicate a potential problem. He has seen his fastball velocity drop even lower than the already reduced high 80 fastball he had last season. It seems unlikely that his velocity will rebound during the season, which has fans worried throughout Philadelphia.

Players in their prime are usually immune from this scrutiny because their “player-centric” stats are traditionally in line with their career norms. But this isn’t always the case, as Tim Lincecum has recently been criticized for having velocity issues also. His fastball speed has been down and his pitch location isn’t as strong as it used to be, leading to speculation that his 2013 is going to look a lot like his 2012.

Can either of these guys bounce back?

The degree to which these “player-centric” stats are useful depend on the career arc of the player. The players whose stats receive the most scrutiny, justifiably so, are those player’s in their first couple of spring trainings and those exiting their prime. At the same time, they can confirm regressive tendencies with players in their prime.

As nice as it would be to disregard all preseason stats, certain spring training stats prove that they cant be ignored. It seems that spring isn’t just a time for celebrities to play baseball.

But still, who doesn’t love Billy Crystal?

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